Photos of JMU's New Field Turf!

[JMU Duke Dog]

These are courtesy of Longhorn from the CAAZone.com! :bow:

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf1.jpg

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf2.jpg

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf3.jpg

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf4.jpg

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf5.jpg

http://www.beverageexperts.com/images/truf6.jpg

[GeauxColonels]

Looks great!!!! I myself wish Nicholls State could get the funding to install a field turf-type of surface since it consistently becomes a mud pit due to the south Louisiana rain. I've seen the surfaces at Southeastern, Northwestern State, Stephen F. Austin and Texas State-San Marcos in the Southland and it always impresses me! Looks like your athletic department has it's priorities straight when it comes to the football program!

[Umass74]

Looks great! Congrats JMU.:hurray:

Our undersurface work is done. The fieldturf is being installed this week!

Should be ready for Colgate with no problem.

[GannonFan]

I like the differences in shading every 5 yards. One of my dislikes of FieldTurf (and there aren't many) is that the shade of the green, if done all in one shade, just looks funny when it's all laid out. Close up I still don't like the shading but the more distant pictures look very good because of the two different shades.

[Linehawg]

...and hope VMI's turns out as nice. Gotta lose that pink track though...unless the Duke Diversity Club demanded it.xlolx

[walliver]

Gotta lose that pink track though

I agree. The combination of pink and purple reminded me of Minnie Mouse's house at Disney World. At least the field is green.

[jmufootball2]

they will be painting the track a solid color. not purple

[TheBisonator]

I love JMU's stadium. Your place to me looks a lot like what Dacotah Field would look like for NDSU if we stayed at that place and kept it up real nice. Hell, we might be able to play on field turf by now instead of the rug we still play in at the Fargodome. There are a lot of eerie similarities between the two places.

[DTSpider]

Looks great. Not just the turf, but that the 6ft crown has been removed.

[89Hen]

Are they going to put the bleachers back up in the West endzone?

[89Hen]

Looks good. Are they going to put the bleachers back up in the West endzone?

[JMU Duke Dog]

Looks good. Are they going to put the bleachers back up in the West endzone?

Yes! I also think that there will be more seating capacity in the endzone bleachers for the 2006 seasons than in the previous one.

[rufus]

The endzone seats will hold somewhere in the range of 4,000 - 4,500 for the upcoming season, up from 2,800 at the end of last season. The endzone bleachers were previously expanded from 2,000 to 2,800 in the middle of last season. From what I've heard, the next round of expansion (already funded) should put 8,000 - 13,000 permanent seats in that endzone.

[MplsBison]

So now you'll have 2 lanes of 100m track and no corners.

[rufus]

So now you'll have 2 lanes of 100m track and no corners.
2 lanes of *painted* 100m track and no corners! :)

[TheValleyRaider]

The difference in shading plus the sharpness of the logos is very cool. Keeping the endzones green is a nice touch too. Sometimes the painted look is better, but I like the green here.

[GannonFan]

The endzone seats will hold somewhere in the range of 4,000 - 4,500 for the upcoming season, up from 2,800 at the end of last season. The endzone bleachers were previously expanded from 2,000 to 2,800 in the middle of last season. From what I've heard, the next round of expansion (already funded) should put 8,000 - 13,000 permanent seats in that endzone.

I thought the next phase of expansion was to get up around 20k capacity. If you're at 13-15k now depending on how many bleachers you put up, and if the endzone itself is going to have upwards to 13k seats, is there going to be no expansion of the stadium between the endzones (either sideline). It would seem to be silly to put that many seats in one endzone when the better seats are clearly on the sidelines. Heck, more than half of the capacity for the stadium would be in that one endzone alone.

[UNH 40]

I believe i speak for all UNH fans when i say....... I'm jealous.:bawling:

[Tribe4SF]

Bowling in that end of the field seems like the easiest first step. JMU's current need is for more student seating and, like Delaware, they'll go on the end of the field. Adding on the sidelines will be a much bigger deal in terms of planning and cost. Once they get to 20,000, they'll need to draw alot more non-students on a consistent basis to justify further expansion. Their alumni population is growing rapidly, so that may well happen. I'd move the scoreboard to the other end of the field.

[AppGuy04]

Looks nice

[NoCoDanny]

The answer is to lower the field, remove the track, and add more closer seats on the sidelines.

[GannonFan]

The answer is to lower the field, remove the track, and add more closer seats on the sidelines.

Agreed - tracks around football fields stink.

[GeauxColonels]

Agreed - tracks around football fields stink.
Yep. If it's possible, that would be nice to lower the field and make the lowest seating closer to the game. I LOVE that Nicholls is meerely feet away from the action and I can see the sweat on the players faces and what they say about each other's mommas!

[GreatAppSt]

There goes some of our home field advantage.:D

[Linehawg]

Agreed - tracks around football fields stink.

Problem is, when they built JMU's new track, they put almost NO seating around it. Hosting the State high school track finals there is getting to be ridiculous and they'll likley look to move it somewhere else.

[JMU Duke Dog]

Field lowering has been brought up often among JMU people; however, field lowering is not possible due to the water table as there is a creek and lake right next to Bridgeforth Stadium as well.

[rufus]

I thought the next phase of expansion was to get up around 20k capacity. If you're at 13-15k now depending on how many bleachers you put up, and if the endzone itself is going to have upwards to 13k seats, is there going to be no expansion of the stadium between the endzones (either sideline). It would seem to be silly to put that many seats in one endzone when the better seats are clearly on the sidelines. Heck, more than half of the capacity for the stadium would be in that one endzone alone.
The next phase of expansion should take us to roughly 20,000. We currently have 12,500 permanent seats on the two sidelines combined, and we rent 4,000+ bleacher seats for the endzone. I believe the next expansion phase will replace the bleachers with at least 8,000 permanent endzone seats. Adding 8,000 seats would bring us to 20,500 total seats. I believe the budget actually calls for 10,000 seats, but I've heard anywhere from as few as 8,000 to as many as 13,000. After this phase, Bridgeforth should be somewhere in the range of 20,500 to 25,500.

The idea is to build enough endzone seating to allow us to tear down and rebuild the existing sideline structures, since doing so will most likely require us to go through a season with one side of the stadium out of commission. If we have around 22,500 seats and we tear down the small side of our stadium (approx 5,500 seats), we will still be left with a sufficient amount of seating during construction. As others have pointed out, the stadium's proximity to the lake could make it difficult to lower the field. The new sideline seats will simply be built closer to the field instead.

Anywhere from 8,000 to 13,000 sounds like a substantial endzone structure to me. Does anyone know how many Montana's endzone holds? I've always liked that part of their stadium.

[89Hen]

It would seem to be silly to put that many seats in one endzone when the better seats are clearly on the sidelines.
Watch it GF, as a proud NEZ season ticket holder I beg to disagree. :p ;)

[GannonFan]

Watch it GF, as a proud NEZ season ticket holder I beg to disagree. :p ;)

God bless ya because I couldn't do it - I had end zone seats as a student once and I despised it - after that one time I made sure to make trades to get in Sec A or B (back when they handed out student tickets). Maybe I lack the eye or the proper appreciation for the location?

[89Hen]

God bless ya because I couldn't do it - I had end zone seats as a student once and I despised it - after that one time I made sure to make trades to get in Sec A or B (back when they handed out student tickets). Maybe I lack the eye or the proper appreciation for the location?
I have to say, I was none too excited when I got bumped from G down to the NEZ, but after last year I decided to keep them. I am all the way on the end too where the band comes in at halftime. But, it's easy in easy out, close to the concessions for the kids, and we acutally get 4.5 seats because there is a seat under the handrail that they don't sell. Plus, you can always find me because I stand all game leaning against that rail with my camera in hand.

The only down side is when the action is in the SEZ, but last year it seemed most of the scoring was in the NEZ. In the Lehigh game the fourth quarter comeback and the OT were in the NEZ.

[GeauxColonels]

We don't have endzone seats at Nicholls but I did sit in the endzone for the Nicholls/Southeastern game this past season. Although it was difficult to see much of the time, we had a blast and were VERY close to the field. If I had to, I would DEFINITELY do it all over again!

[rufus]

I agree that the best seats are on the sidelines, but JMU plans to completely rebuild both sides of its stadium rather than adding on to the existing stands. Unless we want to go through a season with around 6,500 permanent seats and 4,500 bleachers, we will need to build up the endzone before we can tear down one side of the stadium.

I can't see the admin being willing to go through a season with less than 15,000 total seats. Maybe it's possible to rent 8,500+ bleacher seats for the endzone, but I'm not sure I've ever seen temporary bleachers that large.

[GannonFan]

Hey, Penn St's stadium seats well over 100,000 and most of it looks like it could pass for temporary bleachers - you'd be surprised how big bleachers can be.

[89Hen]

Hey, Penn St's stadium seats well over 100,000 and most of it looks like it could pass for temporary bleachers - you'd be surprised how big bleachers can be.
Twice as big, and closer to home. The whole thing looks like an erector set.

http://www.racefansfriend.com/images/track_photos/dover_speedway_1.jpg

[rufus]

A lot of stadiums have large bleachers, but those are generally permanent metal stands rather than the temporary rental variety used by JMU. The budget for the next round of expansion is only $10 million, which can buy a nice endzone structure but not much of a sideline structure. Then again, UCF is building an entire 45,000 seat stadium for around $35 million, so maybe $10 million actually goes further than I think. I honestly don't know.